Campus Life: Rutgers; After 117 Years, New Verses For Alma Mater

Published: April 8, 1990

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J.—
Singing the praises of alma mater used to be simple. They could include a verse about hallowed halls and ivy-covered walls, another about a nearby hill, valley, river or lake and a refrain that hails the school's stalwart sons or daughters.

Those were the days before single-sex colleges became coeducational and universities opened many campuses. Recognizing that those days have passed, Rutgers University has updated its 117-year-old alma mater.

The anthem is still sung to the Scottish tune ''By the Banks of the Old Dundee.'' In deference to alumni, it retains all five original verses and chorus with the references to ''the banks of the old Raritan.''

Now, however, the lusty-voiced add four verses and two choruses that reflect the Camden, Newark and New Brunswick campuses. The language also celebrates the diversity and size of a student body that includes people of many ''races, religions, colors, sexes, marital status, sexual orientations and physical handicaps,'' said Wilbert Jerome, chairman of the music department in Camden and head of the committee that selected the verses.

The song includes these lyrics:

The sun of justice shines in Camden;

Its enlightened truth we all can share

Our hearts and minds unite

At that honored urban site,

On the banks of the old Delaware.

These are for the Newark campus:

John Dana's dream for this old Newark

Of an educated human will,

Lives on in sturdy walls

Of Rutgers' urban halls

On the slopes of the Academic Hill.

For New Brunswick, students sing these lines:

Let's toast to Rutgers ever stronger

Since the time when Old Queen's first began:

Here's to glory days of old

And a future bright and bold

On the banks of the Old Raritan.

The university as a whole receives these lyrics:

From New Jersey's northern lakes and mountains

To our southern pines and gleaming shore,

Learning's fair and hallowed place

Join us, every creed and race,

And we praise the name of Rutgers evermore.

The committee recommended singing the original chorus after the new verses for the New Brunswick campus and the university as a whole, but with ''my friends'' substituted for ''my boys'' in the refrain.

The committee - 13 administrators, alumni, students, faculty members and a professor emeritus appointed by the University Senate and the late president, Edward J. Bloustein - ran a contest last fall. Forty-four people, including faculty and staff members, students, alumni and friends, competed for a cash prize.

The winners included Julie E. and Kenneth E. Kendall, who are on the Business School faculty in Camden. They shared $250 for their verses about Camden. The music chairman of Monmouth College in West Long Branch, William A. Wollman, won for the Camden chorus.

Norman F. Washburne, a professor of sociology and anthropology in Newark, received $375, and Lenny Melisurgo, Cook College Class of '85, of Edison, N.J., won $125 for the Newark material.

Marc Meklir, Rutgers Class of '91, received $500 for the New Brunswick verse, and Edwin Hartman, a professor of business administration in Newark, received $500 for the statewide verse.